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Being  a  Brief  Record  of  the 
Life  and  Labors  of  the  Rev. 
CHARLES  CALEB  PEIRCE 
Of  El  Dorado  County,  California 


By  the  Right  Reverend 
WILLIAM  H.  MORELAND,  D.D. 
Bishop  of  Sacramento 


EL  DORADO,  A  CALIFORNIA  MINING  TOWN 

A  Modern  St.  Francis 

BY  THE  RIGHT  REVEREND  WILLIAM  H.  MORELAND,  D.D.,  BISHOP  OF  SACRAMENTO 


THE  Rev.  Charles  Caleb  Peirce, 
presbyter,  who  fell  asleep  at 
Placerville,  El  Dorado  county, 
California,  March  14th,  1903, 
was  a  striking  personality.  As  a  hero  of 
the  mission  field,  as  a  man  of  rare  self- 
sacrifice,  as  a  character  of  rugged 
strength  and  spirituality,  as  a  Christian 
pastor,  his  career  is  highly  instructive, 
and  reflects  glory  upon  the  American 
Church.  For  forty-two  years  this  man 
labored  and  served  in  one  place,  and  that 
a  rough,  sparsely  settled,  obscure  corner 
of  the  United  States.  Although  without 
private  means,  he  refused  to  receive  a 
salary,  believing  that  the  people  whom 
he  served  would  provide  for  him  in 
health  and  sickness  and  in  the  hour  of 
death.  His  title  was  rector  of  the 
Church  of  the  Saviour,  Placerville, 
which  he  built  in  pioneer  days  at  large 
expense,  raising  much  of  the  money  him¬ 
self,  but  his  parish  was  the  entire  county 
of  El  Dorado,  over  which  he  tramped 
week  by  week,  until  he  was  a  familiar 
and  beloved  figure  in  every  hamlet,  min¬ 
ing  cgmp  and  farmhouse  with  in  its 
limits. 


Sundays  he  spent  serving  the  parish 
church,  but  invariably  on  Monday  morn¬ 
ings  he  set  out  on  his  walks  over  the 
dusty  highways  and  mountain  roads, 
bearing  a  heavy  pack  of  sacred  writings 
which  he  gave  away.  He  gathered  neigh¬ 
borhoods  in  farm  kitchens  and  school- 
houses  where  by  candle-light  this  grad¬ 
uate  of  the  General  Theological  Sem¬ 
inary,  learned  in  the  Hebrew  and  Greek 
Bible,  expounded  Scripture  to  the  coun¬ 
try  people,  afterward  presenting  each 
one  with  a  copy  of  the  book  under  re¬ 
view.  He  carried  about  successively 
all  the  principal  books  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments,  each  being  separately 
bound,  and  each  in  turn  he  carefully  ex¬ 
plained,  until  he  had  taken  his  hearers 
through  the  Bible  and  had  presented 
them  with  a  consecutive  library  of  the 
sacred  writings.  He  excited  curiosity 
and  interest  in  the  almost  unknown  con¬ 
tents  of  Holy  Scripture  by  announcing 
true  but  striking  and  fanciful  titles  to 
his  Bible  readings.  “The  Brave  Heart 
in  Prison”  would  prove  to  be  an  in¬ 
troduction  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Philip- 
pians.  “Letter  of  the  Dying  Hero”  was 


the  phrase  whereby  he  secured  a  hearing 
for  II.  Timothy.  lie  would  bring  out 
and  apply  some  of  the  richness  of  the 
selected  Scripture,  simply  to  whet  the 
appetite  for  more,  then  place  the  book 
itself  in  the  hand  of  each  hearer,  urging 
a  completer  study  at  home.  In  this  way 
he  sowed  the  seeds  of  eternal  life,  which 
on  subsequent  visits  he  found  ripening 
and  bearing  fruit. 

In  scattered  rural  communities  and 


appeared  the  people  were  awaiting  him 
with  glad  anticipation.  Every  house  in 
the  county  was  his  home.  At  noon  or 
in  the  evenings  when  he  would  turn  in 
to  rest,  a  plate  would  be  set  for  him  at 
any  table  and  a  bed  found  ready  under 
any  roof.  He  could  sleep  in  the  hay  or 
under  the  trees,  if  need  be,  but  there  was 
not  a  farmer  or  housewife  in  the  land 
who  did  not  feel  honored  to  shelter  this 
man  of  God. 


Monday  morning:  Ready  for 
the  week’s  tramp 


Sunday  morning:  Ready  for 
the  church  service 


THE  REV.  CHARLES  C.  PEIRCE 


along  country  sides  where  human  habi¬ 
tations  were  few  and  widely  separated 
he  went  with  his  store  of  Divine  knowl¬ 
edge,  evangelizing  a  people  who  were 
wholly  without  settled  pastors  and  be¬ 
yond  the  reach  of  a  parochial  system. 
Being  unmarried  and  of  vigorous  health, 
he  vvas  able  to  spend  six  days  of  every 
week  in  walking  over  the  county,  aver¬ 
aging  sixty  miles  from  Monday  to  Sat¬ 
urday,  announcing  in  advance  the  cir¬ 
cuit  of  his  journeys,  so  that  wherever  he 


Ilis  parish  records  show  a  remark¬ 
able  ministry.  He  baptized  772  indi¬ 
viduals,  married  597  couples,  officiated 
at  1,385  burials,  and  this  among  a  scant 
and  widely  scattered  population.  Ilis 
custom  was  to  preach  at  weddings, 
christenings  and  funerals,  believing  that 
he  ought  to  let  no  opportunity  pass  to 
tell  the  people  of  Christ,  especially 
where  so  few  had  the  chance  to  attend 
church.  He  saw  children  whom  he  bap¬ 
tized  grow  to  maturity,  and  was  often 


called  on  to  baptize  their  children,  and 
children’s  children.  He  performed 
offices  of  the  Church  for  three  and  even 
four  generations  in  the  same  family. 
His  charity  was  unbounded,  involving 
at  times  self-inflicted  suffering  and  pri¬ 
vation.  Distress  or  poverty  among  those 
he  met  appealed  to  him  so  strongly  that 
he  would  share  even  his  wearing  ap¬ 
parel  with  an  entire  stranger  who  seemed 
to  need  it  more  than  himself.  The  chief 
anxiety  o  f 
his  friends 
was  lest  he 
should  give 
away  his  ef¬ 
fects  faster 
than  they 
could  sup¬ 
ply  him. 

It  is  easy 
to  under¬ 
stand  how 
such  a  life 
as  this,  con- 
ti  n  u  e  d  in 
simple  un¬ 
conscious 
heroism  for 
forty  -two 
years,  made 
the  man  al- 
m  o  s  t  the 
idol  of  his 
people. 

Other  min¬ 
isters  came  and  went,  “Father  Peirce” 
stayed  on.  It  was  enough  for  him 
to  be  the  servant  of  Christ  to  a  whole 
county.  He  gladly  accepted  this  as 
his  life  work  and  it  was  his  boast  be¬ 
fore  life  closed  that  only  twice  had 
he  been  outside  the  county  limits — and 
then  against  his  will. 

When  such  a  ministry  as  this  came  to 
its  close  great  and  spontaneous  was  the 
outpouring  of  a  people’s  grief.  Far  and 
wide  through  the  country  flashed  the 
news,  “  ‘Father  Peirce’  is  dead.”  On  the 
day  of  his  funeral  the  roads  were  lined 
with  vehicles  of  every  description,  bring¬ 
ing  people  to  the  county  seat.  The 
Mayor  of  Placerville  issued  a  proclama¬ 
tion  calling  on  the  schools  and  stores 


to  close.  There  was  complete  cessation 
of  business.  The  windows  displayed  the 
portrait  of  the  dead  pastor  draped  in 
black.  Even  the  saloons  were  locked, 
and  bore  on  their  glass  doors  the  words, 
“Closed  on  account  of  the  funeral  of 
Brother  Peirce.”  The  people  stood  about 
in  groups  discussing  a  life  which  in¬ 
spired  them  with  awe  as  of  something 
supernatural.  The  body,  robed  in  his 
vestments,  lay  in  the  church,  and  for  two 

days  many 
h  u  n  d  reds 
came  to  look 
upon  it.  It 
was  pathetic 
to  see  among 
the  crowds, 
the  waifs 
and  strays 
o  f  human¬ 
ity,  men 
whose  blear 
eyes  and 
sorry  dress 
spoke  too 
plainly  o  f 
the  sad  in- 
f  i  r  m  i  t  y 
which  had 
o  v  e  r  c  o  me 
them.  Peirce 
had  been 
their  friend. 
No  one  had 
sunk  too  low 
to  lose  his  sympathy  or  lack  his  helping 
hand.  The  solid  men  of  the  county, 
including  its  officers,  administrators, 
miners,  laborers,  marched  to  Ms  grave. 
The  Board  of  Education,  of  which  he 
had  been  a  member  for  forty  years, 
with  teachers  and  pupils,  were  witness¬ 
ing  to  the  public  loss.  The  newspaper 
issued  an  extra  supplement  with  his  por¬ 
trait  and  a  poem  from  a  local  source,  en¬ 
titled  “Come,  El  Dorado,  and  Bury 
Your  Dead.”  The  Bishop,  at  Father 
Peirce’s  last  request,  preached  a  funeral 
sermon  and  read  the  solemn  offices  of  the 
Church. 

Not  often  when  an  “Episcopal  minis¬ 
ter”  dies  is  the  blow  felt  in  every  house¬ 
hold,  the  public  business  suspended  and 


“ALONG  COUNTRY  SIDES  WHERE  HUMAN  HABITATIONS 

WERE  FEW” 


THE  CHURCH  OF  OUR  SAVIOUR,  PLACERVILLE 


every  inhabitant  impressed  with  the 
feeling  that  a  general  calamity  has 
occurred.  Allowance  must  be  made  for 
the  appeal  to  popular  imagination  of 
such  a  life  as  Peirce’s.  Doubtless  many 
an  equally  Christlike  life  is  spent  in 
busy  streets  and  amid  purely  urban  sur¬ 
roundings.  But  here  was  one  who 
seemed  to  reproduce  the  method  of  the 
Saviour’s  life.  Peirce  appeared  to  be 
patterned  after  Him  who  “went  about 
doing  good,”  who  “had  not  where  to  lay 
His  head.”  El  Dorado  county  became 
to  a  grateful  people  a  twentieth  cen¬ 
tury  Palestine  hallowed  by  the  footprints 
of  a  devoted  follower  of  the  Christ. 
This  was  the  way  they  came  to  regard 
him,  pointing  him  out  as  he  passed  by 
in  his  rough  gray  suit,  woollen  shirt  and 
thick  boots,  with  the  words,  “There  goes 
a  man  like  Jesus  Christ.” 

Charles  Caleb  Peirce  was  born  of 
Quaker  parentage  in  Cincinnati,  O.,  in 
1826.  His  father,  Thomas  Peirce,  was  an 
iron  merchant  of  Chester  county,  Penn¬ 
sylvania.  He  studied  and  practised 


law  for  a  few  years,  but  his  gentle  nature 
found  the  exercise  of  litigation  distaste¬ 
ful,  and  he  turned  to  the  ministry  of  the 
Church.  He  was  graduated  from  the 
General  Theological  Seminary  in  New 
York  in  the  class  of  1860,  was  ordered 
deacon  in  Trinity  Church,  New  York, 
the  same  year  and  came  at  once  to  Cali¬ 
fornia,  being  moved  with  a  yearning  for 
the  West.  For  some  months  he  was  in 
charge  of  Grace  Church,  San  Francisco, 
while  the  Eev.  Dr.  F.  C.  Ewer,  the 
rector,  went  East  for  a  vacation  from 
which  he  never  returned.  An  incident 
occurred  while  here  which  gave  direction 
to  his  whole  subsequent  life.  A  kind- 
hearted  parishioner  of  worldly  disposi¬ 
tion  said  to  him,  “Mr.  Peirce,  if  you 
would  be  a  success  in  the  ministry  you 
must  cultivate  the  rich,  for  money  rules 
the  world.” 

This  sentiment,  seriously  expressed, 
shocked  the  sensitive  spirit  of  young 
Peirce,  whose  heart  was  burning  with 
ardent  love  and  faith.  He  resolved  to 
shake  the  dust  of  wealthy  cities  from 


His  feet  and  turn  to  some  wilderness 
where  he  could  throw  himself  altogether 
upon  God.  He  selected  El  Dorado,  as 
being  a  wild,  half  settled  mining  coun¬ 
try  without  railroads.  Thither  he  went 
in  1861  after  his  ordination  to  the  priest¬ 
hood.  He  resolved  to  demonstrate  in  his 
own  experience  the  truth  of  the  Saviour’s 
promise:  “Seek  ye  first  the  Kingdom  of 
God  and  His  righteousness,  and  all  these 
things  shall  be  added  unto  you.”  This 
was  his  Master’s  word  and  he  believed  it 
absolutely.  Therefore  he  refused  a  sal¬ 
ary,  and  would  not  on  principle  save  any 
of  the  money  which  came  into  his  hands, 
lie  argued,  “If  I  were  a  man  of  family,  I 
should  feel  compelled  to  look  forward 
to  provision  for  my  wife  and  children, 
but  I  have  only  myself  to  provide  for, 
and  I  will  lean  wholly  on  the  Almighty 
arm.”  The  accounts  which  he  kept 
methodically  showed  that  up  to  1899 
(when  I  had  the  privilege  of  examining 
his  books)  he  had  spent  over  $16,000  on 
Bibles,  religious  writings  and  sacred 
pictures  which  he  gave  away.  This  sum 
represented  the  amount  he  had  received 
from  the  people  in  fees  and  donations. 
He  grudged  every  dollar  spent  on  him¬ 


self,  and  saved  all  that  he  earned  that  he 
might  buy  more  books  to  give  away.  He 
indulged  his  own  taste  in  one  direction 
only.  He  secured  the  works  of  German 
and  English  scholars  whom  he  thought 
able  to  elucidate  the  Hebrew  and  Greek 
Testaments  in  a  reverent,  orthodox 
spirit.  Delitzsch  was  his  favorite  mas¬ 
ter.  He  was  a  close  student  of  the  letter 
of  Scripture.  His  annotations  in  He¬ 
brew  are  to  be  found  on  the  margins  of 
his  Old  Testament,  and  in  both  Testa¬ 
ments  he  was  ever  searching  as  in  a 
mine  for  precious  treasures.  That  the 
Bible  was  God’s  chief  instrument  of 
conversion  was  his  conviction.  Him¬ 
self  he  likened  to  a  wheel  in  a  running 
stream,  with  an  inexhaustible  supply  of 
Scripture  passing  through  him  to  the 
people.  Thus  he  became  the  incarnation 
of  faith,  and  men  looked  on  and  mar¬ 
velled.  One  day,  walking  with  him  on 
the  road,  he  said  to  me  with  great 
earnestness,  “Emmanuel  is  nearer  than 
the  air  I  breathe  or  the  food  I  eat.  The 
Saviour  is  the  one  great  reality  of  life.” 

Wonderfully  was  his  faith  in  God’s 
providential  care  justified.  The  moment 
illness  came  upon  him  the  people  sur- 


WHERE  MR.  PEIRCE  MINISTERED 


rounded  him  with  comfort  and  skilled  at¬ 
tention.  Men  who  never  suspected  that 
they  were  fulfilling  the  word  of  Christ 
provided  liberally  for  Christ’s  faithful 
servant.  By  whispering  his  name  on  the 
street,  a  thousand  dollars  might  have 
been  collected  in  an  hour.  He  was  sent 
away  to  the  springs  with  an  attendant. 
The  nurse  writes  home:  “This  is  an  ex¬ 
pensive  place.  Good  people  here  will 
look  after  Brother  Peirce.  I  can  return 
and  save  you  $5  daily.”  The  answer 
went  by  wire,  “Stay  with  him,  and  spare 
no  expense.” 

Peirce,  although  he  knew  that  he  must 
die,  was  the  happiest  of  men,  for  had  not 
the  Saviour’s  promise  proved  true? 
“Verily  I  say  unto  you,  There  is  no  man 
that  hath  left  house  or  brethren  .  .  . 

or  wife  or  children  or  lands  for  My  sake 
and  the  gospel’s  but  he  shall  receive  an 
hundred  fold  now  in  this  time,  houses 
and  brethren  .  .  .  and  lands,  and  in 

the  world  to  come  eternal  life”  (St. 
Mark  x.  29,  30).  He  had  nothing  yet 
possessed  all  things.  So  he  went  away 
rejoicing  in  the  expectation  of  meeting 
Christ  face  to  face. 

Within  the  limits  of  this  article  noth¬ 
ing  can  be  written  of  the  eccentricities 
which  were  a  natural  expression  of  his 
strong  individuality;  of  his  isolation 
from  a  former  bishop  and  his  clerical 


brethren,  so  that  he  could  not  be  per¬ 
suaded  to  attend  convocation  or  other 
gatherings;  of  his  need  of  an  associate 
to  care  for  the  flock  at  home,  while  he 
was  ministering  to  the  scattered  sheep 
abroad.  We  must  not  miss,  however, 
the  magnificent  witness  of  his  life  to  the 
power  of  faith  and  the  truth  of  Jesus 
Christ.  The  splendid  breadth  of  his 
sympathy  and  labors  makes  our  paro¬ 
chial  systems,  with  their  careful  defini¬ 
tions  of  metes  and  boundaries,  look  petty, 
and  he  lived  in  happy  forgetfulness  of 
the  column  of  statistics,  as  he  went  about 
touching  and  blessing  every  life  he  could 
in  any  wise  approach.  While  others 
were  discussing  in  Church  Councils  liow 
to  evangelize  a  rural  community,  he  was 
simply  doing  it.  His  career  gives  a 
valuable  hint  to  those  who  will  receive  it, 
that  to  be  the  American  Church  we  must 
go  out  to  the  people,  full  of  sympathy 
and  service  for  all. 

In  the  Book  of  Life,  kept  by  the  hand 
of  the  loving,  eternal  One,  without  doubt 
stands  very  high  the  name  of  the  obscure 
presbyter,  Charles  Caleb  Peirce.  It  may 
be  that  in  this  strong,  spiritual  person¬ 
ality  the  American  Church  has  devel¬ 
oped,  in  one  of  her  mission  fields,  a  char¬ 
acter  who  will  some  day  be  recognized 
as  one  of  the  brightest  lights  of  Ameri¬ 
can  Christianity. 


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4 

“/  take  this  occasion  to  say  how  improved  The  SPIRIT  of  MISSIO  NS 
seems  to  me  to  be  and  how  7nuch  interesting  and  well  selected  7natter  it  contains." 

— A  lfred  T.  Mahan,  Captain  United  States  Navy , 


Second  Edition,  March,  1906.  (2M.)  S.  P. 


